Callsign: Puppeteer
by Wolfsbane706
Summary: A series of oneshots concerning Alice's experiences as a Volunteer pilot. Always listed as "Complete" because each oneshot is it's own story. Flat Spin: Alice's curiosity sends her Interceptor into a flat spin, whic in turn leads to a confrontation about why she did it.


**I realize I have a horrible track record when it comes to updating stories, but I decided to publish this one-shot all the same. There's more to come from this, but it won't come for a while yet.**

**DISCLAIMER: ****I do not own Touhou Project nor any related franchises. The character Jonathan "Seraph" DeLauren is mine and mine alone.**

* * *

_"Puppeteer!" _Alice stirred. Someone was calling her name? No. Not her name. Her call sign in the Squadron. But why?

_ "Puppeteer! Dammit, Alice, wake up!" _There it was again! She did what she'd been told and woke up. Everything _seemed _normal for flight. Over her right eye, her Interface, a small monocle-type thing with a hard light screen. Something was off, though . . . . Wait a minute!

"Seraph, this is Puppeteer. My Interface has numerous alarms going off all at once," she said worriedly. After setting her thoughts straight and convincing her Interface to organize the warnings, she asked "What's going on?"

_"You were in a flat spin," _Seraph explained. _"You spun so many times, you blacked out, or so I gathered from the stain on your cockpit canopy."_

Alice blushed a little, thankful that nobody but her dolls could see. Apparently, being a Youkai didn't mean she was immune to up-chucking her lunch when she got too dizzy. "How did I get out of the spin?" she asked after clearing all of the warnings her Interface had been spouting. No response. "Jonathan?"

_"I suppose I should stop complaining when you bring your dolls along on flights," _he remarked. Not a straight answer, nor very informative, so it left Alice confused.

"What do you mean?"

_"I think I'll let Hourai explain," _Jonathan prompted.

Alice was about to ask what Jonathan meant when Hourai flew up off of her usual spot on Alice's lap. "Thatwasawesome. That, was, _awesome!" _came her synthesized shout, alongside a miniature fist-pump. The voice was based off of recordings of Alice's own, only without the posh accent and with an extra dose of hyper-talkative enthusiasm.

"Hourai!" came Shanghai's own synthesized shout. "Calm down!"

"Ahw, shaddup, baby sister!" Hourai retorted. "Anyway, Jonny said something about you breaking some 'Cardinal Rule', or somethin', and, uhh, Shanghai, help me out here."

"Activating the blades in atmospheric flight destabilized the Interceptor. You sent yourself into a spin after trying to compensate without _de_activating the blades," Shanghai explained from her position above Alice's shoulder. "After about twenty rotations, you vomited and blacked out. We went through another ten before Hourai had the admittedly brilliant idea of controlling the craft ourselves. We got you out of the spin, stabilized the Interceptor, then turned on the autopilot."

Having listened intently to the story her dolls had been telling, Alice spoke up herself. "I remember puking and blacking out," she confirmed. "But what I can't wrap my head around is you two controlling the craft."

_"I talked them through it myself," _inserted Jonathan. _"Oh, and Hourai?"_

The ominous tone of Jonathan's voice gave Hourai pause when she answered "Yes?"

_"I've instructed Marisa several times not to call me 'Jonny'. _Don't _follow her example."_

* * *

"I swear to you, I had no idea what would happen when I flicked that switch!" Alice shouted in defiance of the reprimand she faced. After waking up, she'd been led back aboard ship and then told to wait in the hangar while one of Nitori's subordinates (the black haired one with the bob cut) cleaned out the vomit-encrusted inside of Alice's Interceptor. When Jonathan finally arrived, he was less than pleased, and the questioning began. "Nobody told me those blades could move."

Jonathan held up a hand to hush Alice before she could complain further. "Alright, alright," he acknowledged. "But still, flicking random switches on your control panel is reckless. Why do it?" Alice shifted under her Commander's questions, afraid to answer because of what she might implicate. "Well?"

"I was . . curious," she admitted quietly.

"Curious?" Jonathan repeated. "You were 'curious'?"

"Yes."

"That's a pretty childish answer," he commented, much to Alice's annoyance and irritation.

"I may only be thirteen years old," she began. "But a child, I am not!" When Alice realized what had come out of her mouth, her eyes widened and she swiftly covered her mouth with her hands.

"Thirteen?" Jonathan asked, his own eyes wide with disbelief. "You're only _thirteen years old_?! By the Old Fleets, Alice, what in the world made you think you could fly an Interceptor with only _thirteen years _of life experience?!" He shushed her again before she could answer. "Don't answer that, or I'm changing your call sign to 'Half-Pint'." Crossing his arms, he added "You told me when you volunteered that you were eighteen. Why lie?"

Alice felt her confidence returning, now that it seemed she wasn't going to lose her position in the Squadron. "I'm a Youkai," she explained. "Specifically, a Magician."

"I know that part," Jonathan said dismissively. "It doesn't answer my question."

Alice hesitated. "During the interview, you mentioned that my dexterity made me a perfect candidate for volunteer pilot," she stated.

"That's true," Jonathan confirmed. "I trust there's more to this?"

The puppeteer nodded. "I didn't want my age to get in the way of my skill," she explained further. "Back home, in Makai, I was often teased because I was small and young. It didn't matter how skilled I was at magic, Yuki and Mai would still crack jokes about my age. That prompted me to study methods of making myself seem older. Lucky me, the answer was in becoming a Magician. After completing the rituals, I came to Gensokyo."

Jonathan nodded in understanding. "You lied because you wanted your skill to be taken into account, not your age," he summarized. "You've got skill as a pilot, but your curiosity _needs to be kept in check_. I can't have you flicking random switches in the middle of flight."

"Yes, Sir."

"Before you take your weekend pass, I'd like you to study the controls of each ship class on board the _Phoenix,_" he ordered. "That way, on the off chance you ever fly anything other than an Interceptor, you won't have the temptation to flick a random switch or press a random button just to see what it does."

Alice flinched slightly at his reasoning, but nodded to acknowledge it anyways. "Do I have to take notes?"

Jonathan chuckled. "No, but I do expect you to be able to memorize each function," he explained. "You didn't become a Magician just out of sheer luck. You've got skill, Alice. I hate to see it wasted."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."


End file.
